Generic Criticism is best described as a group of artifacts that are similar in content and fit into the same categories through that content. The artifact that I have chosen to look at is an article from Indian Country Today, which is a news organization that releases articles and information on things that influence Native American people across the nation. The article is titled “In a Rational World, Can Tribal Knowledge Lead Us Into the Future?” and it focuses on the environment along with the idea that maybe Native American concepts can help better the environment. This article is displaying generic participation by being applied to a category that has to do with the environment.
This article would fit in a couple different categories that we have when understanding generic criticism. The first would be the environmental category, because the article is focused on how to get the environment to a better place in the future. This article does kind of have a different take on environmental concepts though, since it is from the stand point of the way Native Americans understand the world. The article focuses on humans’ role within the environment and how our ideas have kind of developed, which means that it could also be within a public involvement category of the environment. The Native American influence on the environment has been a more relevant thing within the media in recent years due to the Dakota Access Pipeline and other issues that different Native American cultures have faced. Due to this idea there could be different categories within the realm of an environmental aspect and the Native American cultural aspect.
Article: https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/environment/rational-world-can-tribal-knowledge-lead-us-future/
Super interesting for sure! I think it would be a great opportunity to discuss how the two articles create such an effective discussion for the audience.